“How long do you think this will last us?”

Applejack was walking around a restaurant looking for any food to scavenge while Otis pushed a kart and did the same. The aching in her stomach had faded as it was dealing with a snack Otis had saved for her during their scavenging. However, it had been a slow process to begin with. After crossing the sea of zombies, the two had to secure a kart, which had been the only easy part of the job, and start at the restaurant on the first level of the plaza with the wide opening and the large banner reading Jill’s Sandwiches. The place had a look that said it had been gone through already, but there was a faint aroma of food about the place. Despite the appearance, Applejack and Otis had been able to scrape up a few food items here and there. Most of it was found behind the counter of the restaurant in some of the cupboards.

“As long as we ration out the stuff,” Otis began as he reached down for something.

Applejack continued her search while Otis placed the carton he held in the kart alongside the rest of the food.

“That makes 2 orange juices, a few baguettes, and some pies,” Otis sounded off as Applejack turned her attention to him, “A good haul for breakfast, but we’re gonna have to come back for more.”

Directing their attention back to the entrance of the restaurant, they started to make their way back. They rounded the corner of the entrance coming face to face with the zombies before readying themselves. Otis lead the charge as he pushed the kart shoving the zombies in his path away as Applejack followed close behind. Applejack kept up her pace as the kart parted the sea of undead allowing further progress across the plaza. Continuing their charge till they reached the other side, they drew out of their charge as they came up on the door to the narrow corridor leaving the plaza behind them. Otis parted from the kart and pushed the door open while Applejack kept guard for the moment. Once Otis had the door fully open, Applejack went over and placed herself against the door keeping it open as Otis then pushed the kart through. Once Otis had cleared the way, Applejack went up and quickly pushed the door shut.

“Well…that was good for a first go,” Otis commented with a sigh as he began to push the kart down the corridor, “We best hurry. Those two are probably starving.”

Applejack left the closed the door and proceeded down the corridor with Otis with a more apparent aroma of food lingering into her nose.

“They’re in for somethin’ I can say,” Applejack commented as the exited the corridor into the room with the boxes on structures, “Reminds me of Granny Smith’s apple pie.”

Applejack let her mind wander back to the dinners on the farm. She remembered the smell and taste of fresh baked apples. The coziness of the Apple family home and the company of Big Macintosh, Applebloom, and Granny Smith…

“Hold up,”

Applejack drew herself from her memories as she and Otis came to a stop in the middle of the room with zombies about it.

“Uh Applejack…” Otis said, urgency overtaking his voice.

“Sh!”

Applejack whipped her head from left to right only seeing the zombies about the area. She could have sworn…a loud buzzing came right up past her left ear. She whipped her head towards the noise and with a squint of her eyes…it was a small bug. A yellow wasp...with a pair of red glowing eyes.

Applejack dodged to the side as the wasp flew right at her. She ducked once it made another attempt at her. It soared right past and close to Otis who took a try at swatting it away.

“Damn things, we had a guy go to the hospital once because of these,” Otis said with aggravation as he turned to continue swatting.

“OTIS!”

Immediately as Otis had turned around, a zombie had come up right on him and now had a firm dead grip. Otis ceased his swatting and tried to pry himself free as Applejack ran up to save him. It happened in quick succession. Applejack saw the wasp hovering over Otis and the zombie in their stalemate. Then in a split second... it soared right at the zombie’s decaying head and penetrated right through into the skull. The zombie froze in place before letting go of Otis and slowly swatting around its own head. The zombie stumbled away still swatting slowly at its head. Without a single word, Applejack and Otis quickly went on their way as the other zombies were, strangely, focusing on the swatting zombie. The made their way towards the two large panels just a static screech filled their ears.

“Ot--...Otis…you there?”

They stopped right in front of the panels as Otis reached for the yellow object and bringing it up to his face.

“Right here,” Otis replied while turning as the sounds of zombie moans drifted to his and Applejack’s ears, “You ok there Frank?”

“Yeah. I’m at the stairs to the North Plaza,” Frank’s voice said, “I’m on the guy’s trail if he’s still here.”

“We’re coming back to the security room from a first food run,” Otis explained while turning to Applejack, “We’ll be sure to save you something.”

“Maybe a while till I get--” Frank’s voice said before being cut out by a loud banging noise erupting from the object.

“Frank!”

.

.

.

“Frank,” Otis shouted into the object with a look of dread coming over his face, “Can you hear me?”

Silence…dead silence…

“Shit… I’m ok…we’ve got a problem here,” Frank’s voice said with obvious shock in his voice, “… I don’t think whoever is shooting saw me… I’m gonna try and get closer…”

“Frank! Don’t do it!” Otis shouted into the object but received no response, “Damnit!”

“That’s it,” Applejack shouted while titling her hat down before taking off back the way they had come, “I’m goin’ to help him.”

Applejack hadn’t gotten a ways away before she felt her tail getting pulled causing her to cease her run. She whipped her head around to see Otis holding her tail with slight irritation engulfing his face.

“But…errr,” Otis got out before letting go of her tail and trying to put the words correctly out…before letting out a sigh, “Be careful and hurry!”

Without any further encouragement, Applejack took off back the way she and Otis had come knowing well where she was going. She rounded the corners of the structures passing the mob of zombies still converging on that one with… the wasp in its skull...

“Go through the entrance in the park!” She heard Otis shout to her, “Up on the stairs on the far right!”

Applejack kicked it into high gear as she dashed down the corridor coming right up on the door back to the Paradise Plaza.

Frank gripped the walkie talkie in his hand tightly as his heart raced rapidly. He made ever so sure his steps were silent, but quick enough to move around the zombies crowding the area. The loud gunshot he had heard was fading from a ringing in his ears as he pinpointed it to be coming from in the belly of the North Plaza. His mind drifted back to the photo from Kent’s camera as his already high determination came over. It was now or never…

As he approached the open area of the North Plaza near the supermarket, he could faintly hear…several people talking quietly over the sound of moaning zombies.

“Keep your eyes peeled boys.”

“He isn’t getting away from me, dad.”

Frank kept his pace as he quickly silenced the walkie talkie before placing it in the pocket of his jacket.

“Son of a…quit hiding!”

Frank proceed forward pinpointing the voices somewhere in the area but not exact. Upon getting closer, he took notice to something new about the area. Amongst the familiar structures, the zombies that had been moving about the place…where now on the ground motionless… Frank crept forward till he was at the foot of the area with a good view about it.

In a split second, Frank came to a stop and tried to pinpoint where the voices had come from when a piercing noise roared in his ears followed by the sound of shattering glass. He immediately identified it as… a high powered rifle…just as he had with the first shot he heard.

“THOMAS! ...How many times have I told you….don’t shoot unless you know you’re gonna hit.”

Frank froze right in place as he slowly titled his head up…. Above his head, he eyed a part of the structures in the area with the flat board floor across them. Through the space of the placed boards, Frank could see…at least three people above him. From what he could tell, they were facing the supermarket and taking the gunshots into account…they were armed.

“Alright boys, speared out on this thing. We’ll pin him from all sides.”

Frank heard the sound of a pair of footsteps going in opposite directions. He immediately moved to his right and pressed himself against the wall while crouching and hoping he was out of sight. As he crept against the wall, he tried thinking what options he had. His mind went to the shotgun he held in his hands…but knew well enough it wouldn’t be much unless he was close enough. The option of sneaking around their view towards the supermarket was one that quickly died as the situation carried out. Part of him crept to the thought of going back the way he came, but determination said he had come too far to go back…

Then there was the sound of rapid gunshots, which Frank pinpointed to the supermarket. Just as the barrage of bullets stopped there were two more shots in a single succession before a silence of gun fire.

“Thomas! You had the shot.”

“But daddy… I ….uh….”

“No buts boy. Some bastard tries to gun us down… We return in kind.”

Frank drew in a breath as his mind formulated…somewhat of a plan. If somehow… he could distract the three above…give the man in the supermarket some time to get away….then Frank could maybe…just maybe…

A low moan filled Frank’s ears that he hadn’t moments before. Turning around he came face to face with a single zombie coming up on him. He pushed his hands forward with the shotgun in both shoving most of the gun right into the zombie. However, the zombie didn’t stumble back but rather leaned back before it lunged forward snagging Frank by the shoulders of his jacket. Frank gave another attempt to shove the zombie away but found it was a useless try. However, he immediately started rocking from side to side gaining momentum before pushing everything into a rock towards the outside of his cover. He felt the zombie let go of his jacket but found himself stumbling out of cover as well.

“…D-d-dad!”

Frank froze for a second at the shout, feeling all eyes from above on him.

“Thomas. Jack. Keep an eye on the doors.”

Frank turned to where the voice came from and saw a man in his early 40’s climbing down from the structures walkway and grabbing onto one of the metal support bars. He lowered himself slowly before dropping safely with a sniper rifle slung on his shoulder. Once he had returned to a balance on his feet, he returned the rifle to his hands and slowly approached Frank. Once the man was close enough and before Frank could even find something to say, the man moved and slammed the butt of his rifle right into the skull of the fallen zombie. He repeated this several times before finally turning his attention onto Frank.

“Alright…now just who are you?” The man demanded with a gruff but slightly irritated tone while giving Frank an almost a death stare.

“Look… I don’t want trouble…” Frank began to say as he lifted his hands with the shotgun still held in one.

He rolled the idea of saying he was hoping to catch the guy in the supermarket around, but the look on the man’s face and his actions only side his boys told him…they were gunning to kill...

“Well, you’re gonna have trouble unless you get you and your camera out of here,” The man said interrupting Frank’s thoughts, “And if you see that other photographer, tell him to stay out of our business with his pictures.”

Frank’s mind flashed an image of Kent...and his cocky grin….

“Look…I’m here to find out what the hell is going on,” Frank said finding his voice with more confidence, “I’m a photojournalist.”

“Well, either way, to me you’re both crazy,” The man commented, “Now I’m not gonna tell you--”

“Dad!... I hear somethin’!”

The man directed his attention towards his son up near the hallway towards the rest of the North Plaza. Frank directed his attention as well. The boy, dressed in a light and dark green coat, had his attention away from the supermarket and appeared to be trying to look down the hallway. There was the sound….of rapid steps slowly getting louder….becoming more audible to where Frank could identify them as more then steps but rather…

“What.. the faaa?” Frank heard the other boy exclaim as Frank caught sight of…orange.

Before Frank or any of the three could react….there was sudden gun fire followed by a blood curdling scream. Frank and the man whipped their heads around…

“JACK! NOOOO!”

Frank found himself being shoved away as the man swung his arms into a firing position and began firing rounds that kept missing…the man from the roof who was now making his escape.

Applejack hadn’t arrived and been in the area by the supermarket for a second before… a loud familiar pattern of noise rang out and seeing…that human from the roof running right towards her. She lowered her eyebrows before charging right at the human with full speed and leaping right at him. The collision she had hoped for didn’t happen, but found something striking her in the side. She felt the wind get knocked out of her before she found herself quickly falling onto the ground with rage engulfing her from the pain.

“Applejack!”

Applejack lifted her head quickly seeing Frank running up to her with the metallic object. She felt herself being lifted up and onto her hooves.

“Come on!” She heard Frank say before hearing him take off down the hallway.

Applejack turned and ran after Frank ignoring the pain from the aftermath of the fall. She managed to catch up with Frank and was quickly outrunning him with the escaping human not far ahead. She immediately ran over towards the ramp up onto the structure running the wall of the hallway keeping her focus on the fleeing human. During her run, she caught the sound of a loud noise piercing her ears which only made her cringe slightly as she kept her pace up. She was quickly catching up as she saw the human heading in the direction towards the area she had entered through. She gritted her teeth as she pushed herself forward focusing on the human, whom was now looking over its shoulder at her. As if taking it as her cue, Applejack adjusted her direction and leaped off the structure. She came right up on the human, whom moved to protect itself, as she shut her eyes and waited. She felt herself make contact as she wrapped her forelegs around the human and held on taking it onto the ground with her. Once they had made contact with the ground, she felt her grip slip before sliding across the ground. She quickly opened her eyes to see the human starting to come to and reaching for a metallic object on the floor one a few inches away. Applejack moved quickly using her front hooves and moved the object away from the human’s reach. She immediately felt something grab her by the mane and pull her back. Letting out a yelp as she found herself tossed and on the ground once more. She wasted no time and got back up onto her hooves to see the human slowly getting up and reaching for…

“EeeAH!!”

Applejack saw Frank come right up and deliver a solid kick into the human’s back. The human buckled over onto the ground, but then swung a leg out taking Frank off his feet. Applejack leapt forward diving towards the human that was trying once more to get up. Applejack found her forelegs make contact with the ground as she used the new found pivot to turn herself and was ready to deliver a kick when she found something suddenly jabbing into her stomach. She found her hooves leaving the ground and herself going face first onto the ground. Applejack quickly came to her sense and got up onto her hooves to see Frank in a stalemate between him and the human. She was about to charge in and help when she saw the human use a single foot and push Frank away with all of its might. She saw Frank’s grip on the human slip and fall backwards into…the forming crowd of zombies.

“FRAANK!”

Applejack dove into the crowd shoving aside zombies and kicking ones getting too close to taking a bite out of Frank. During her struggle, she looked out of the massing zombies to see…the human picking up his metallic object along with the one Frank had been holding…walking away but only taking a moment to look back with lowered eyebrows. Applejack returned with a look of anger now engulfing her face before quickly returning to the matter at hand as she shoved another zombie away as the human made its escape…

Author's Note

First off, I want apologize again for this one taking a while and for any future chapters that that a while.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying the story so far. Please leave your feedback in the comments below and have a great day everyone.